Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948 reveals how during the first half of 1948, Truman and the two most important members of his cabinet, Marshall and Forrestal, systematically deceived Congress and the public into thinking that the U.S.S.R. was about to launch World War III with an invasion of Western Europe. As Professor Kofsky demonstrates, however, virtually every intelligence report coming into Washington - from military and civilian sources alike - asserted the exact opposite: that the Soviets were far too exhausted from battling the Nazis even to think about undertaking such an attack. By making use of previously classified records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Kofsky shows that Truman and his associates were willing to lie to the country in order to push through their foreign policy program, inaugurate a huge military buildup, and bail out the near-bankrupt aircraft industry. The lack of scruple with which high-ranking members of the Truman administration misrepresented Soviet intentions and the profoundly damaging repercussions of Truman's duplicity are just two of the many important subjects that Kofsky treats in this disturbing and engrossing book. It will force us to see both the Cold War and Truman in a new light.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Kofsky, a history professor at California State University, unconvincingly argues that President Harry Truman, in collusion with Secretary of State George Marshall and Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, fabricated the Soviet Union's perceived military aggressiveness towards the West. According to Kofsky, this trumped-up "war scare" was a great success for the Truman administration, for it frightened Congress into approving the Marshall Plan, saved the U.S. aviation industry from bankruptcy and brought about a quantum leap in defense spending. Truman deserves condemnation, the author maintains, for establishing a permanent war economy "that now serves primarily to accelerate the rate at which the quality of life in the United States declines." Kofsky's perspective on the origins of the Cold War is questionable in its ready condemnations of Truman and explanations of U.S.
U.S.S.R. relations under Stalin.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
U.S.S.R. relations under Stalin.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Kofsky (history, California State Univ. at Sacramento) has a reputation for possessing a heavy-handed, pedantic style (as seen in Black Nationalism and the Revolu tion in Music , LJ 6/1/71, and Lenny Bruce: The Comedian as Social Critic , LJ 11/15/74). The same approach weighs down his latest work. Kofsky shows evidence of thorough research but is never able to convince the reader of his belief that the events of the spring of 1948 are historically important and relevant to understanding the Truman presidency. Rather, he buries the reader with acerbic one-liners and countless narrow points of facts to back his argument. The work is particularly disappointing coming on the heels of David McCullough's Truman ( LJ 6/1/92). Kofsky has missed an opportunity to connect with a growing audience of Truman enthusiasts on both a scholarly and popular level. Not recommended.
- Robert Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Wal tham, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Robert Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Wal tham, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
News on the Way US Policy Invented Cold War,
By ymb@dg1a.cec.be (Brussels, Belgium) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation (Paperback)
Fantastic survey on the industrial and political conditions of the arms race of the 50's and the 60's. At the end, US and the Allies dictated the way the Soviets armed themselves, at the expense of world security and peace.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Bibliography Should Make This A Keeper,
By
This review is from: Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation (Paperback)
The bibliography and annotations should make this a keeper, as it has become for me. Although I disagreed with the late Dr. Kofsky about the fundamental potential of the species H. sapiens (and thus remained a political opposite, far, far to his right), as his student I continue to marvel at his research a decade after his untimely death. I must concede that it has sadly gone to waste a bit in the text of this book--though good, it's not at all special in the company of its peers. I must also agree that its tendency toward Marxist religious banter (which must inherently replace logical conclusions in Marxist writing) reduces its academic value per se; none the less I still find it beautiful in its architecture. I can only hope that the breadth of his life's work fell intact into the hands of his graduate assistant, who took over instruction in his last days as a professor in Sacramento. Whether it has or not, this book is well worth considering, especially to a student designing his or her own research. Its annotations and bibliography promise an excruciatingly well investigated line of departure for any intended work on the period, right, left, or simply rational. Now, one last comment about the author: he himself was a graduate student of the Robert LeFevre-Howard Zinn lineage, with all its implications about revision of history to fulfil the prophesies of the sans-culottes. (Y'know, I miss the ol' grouch though too.)
5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emancipate yourself from "Cold War" false propaganda,
This review is from: Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation (Paperback)
The best recommendation a book like this can get is a one star pan from an indoctrinated tool of corporate imperialism like the one below.
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First Sentence:
Those words, or something very like them, leaped into my head the moment it dawned on me-more years ago than I care to recall-that the war scare of 1948 had come along just in time to prevent the aircraft manufacturing industry from plunging into bankruptcy. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
air policy commission, technological inflation, aviation policy board, mistaken intelligence estimate, peace scare, selective service legislation, aircraft procurement, airplane makers, war scare, aircraft executives, aircraft manufacturing industry, aviation commission, airplane builders, air force high command, selective service bill, aircraft firms, universal military training, airframe weight, permanent war economy, universal training, aircraft industry, military airplanes, supplemental appropriation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, State Department, Soviet Union, James Forrestal, Western Europe, Senate Armed Services Committee, Stuart Symington, Oliver Echols, White House, President's Air Policy Commission, New York Times, Bureau of the Budget, Marshall Plan, Aircraft Industries Association, Air Board, Aviation Week, Finletter Commission, Robert Gross, Clark Clifford, Donald Douglas, Los Angeles, North American, Business Week, Harry Truman, Walter Bedell Smith New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Those words, or something very like them, leaped into my head the moment it dawned on me-more years ago than I care to recall-that the war scare of 1948 had come along just in time to prevent the aircraft manufacturing industry from plunging into bankruptcy. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
air policy commission, technological inflation, aviation policy board, mistaken intelligence estimate, peace scare, selective service legislation, aircraft procurement, airplane makers, war scare, aircraft executives, aircraft manufacturing industry, aviation commission, airplane builders, air force high command, selective service bill, aircraft firms, universal military training, airframe weight, permanent war economy, universal training, aircraft industry, military airplanes, supplemental appropriation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, State Department, Soviet Union, James Forrestal, Western Europe, Senate Armed Services Committee, Stuart Symington, Oliver Echols, White House, President's Air Policy Commission, New York Times, Bureau of the Budget, Marshall Plan, Aircraft Industries Association, Air Board, Aviation Week, Finletter Commission, Robert Gross, Clark Clifford, Donald Douglas, Los Angeles, North American, Business Week, Harry Truman, Walter Bedell Smith New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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